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Report: Deutsche Bank will not renew advisory agreement with Cerberus

Deutsche Bank AG's advisory agreement with U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP is expected to end by Dec. 31 and is unlikely to be renewed, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

In 2018, the German lender hired a unit of Cerberus to help it identify savings and improve liquidity management, according to the Dec. 23 report. Several other shareholders of Deutsche Bank expressed concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest, as Cerberus also holds a roughly 3% stake in the lender and may gain access to privileged information as a result of the advisory agreement.

"Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company has been a great support since mid-2018 and helped us to get our deep transformation going. Now it is all about execution," a spokesman for the bank said.

The end of the controversial agreement would allow Cerberus to potentially buy and sell its Deutsche Bank shares, something that the private equity firm was prohibited from doing while the advisory contract was in force, Bloomberg noted.

Meanwhile, Cerberus said it remains confident in the Deutsche Bank team's ability to execute on the lender's restructuring plan to improve its financial and operating performance under CEO Christian Sewing, according to the report.

At Deutsche Bank's investor day on Dec. 10, Sewing affirmed the 8% return on tangible equity target but said it now looks more ambitious than it did in July given worsened macro conditions.